Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Angela who, you might ask? This slight Bulgarian-born artist, architect and provocateur has done more to reframe what Seattle-ites think of their infrastructure than any other person. She designed the landscape at West Point Treatment Facility and was the principle aesthetic force behind the masterwork that is Freeway Park.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Talk about a good investment. A recent study by New York City researchers has determined that:

"Factoring in the costs associated with planting and upkeep, New York City’s street trees provide an annual benefit of about $122 million, according to the Parks Department. The study concludes that New York receives $5.60 in benefits for every dollar spent on trees."

The article continues: "The impetus for this agreement began with NRDC's Rooftops to Rivers report, which recognizes forward-thinking communities across the US who are already using green infrastructure approaches to restore their waterways. This new partnership represents an important first step in providing much-need support for additional urban and suburban communities to implement green solutions."

We should also note that Darla Ingliss, Mike Cox and Steve Moddemeyer, all of Seattle Public Utilities, were peer reviewers for the report.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Open Space Seattle 2100 co-director Nancy Rottle was quoted in the March 29 edition of the Wichita Eagle in an article titled "Seattle may be a model for parks." To read the article, visit.http://www.kansas.com/212/story/31531.html

Friday, March 30, 2007

With the passage of the Seattle Green Factor, the Department of Planning and Development has been facilitating a lot of great public education, particularly with its Green Factor Workshop Series which continues in City Hall's Bertha Landes Room, this Wednesday April 4th at noon. This week it is all about Rainwater Harvesting.

There is also a solid new website that talks about Green Roofs, and they have established a solid web resource on a new website.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

It is always a lovely thing to read about green roofs blooming across the country, from Seattle's own perched oases at City Hall and the new Justice Center to the Rouge River Ford Plant in Dearborn, MI and Chicago's City Hall, with its recreated midwest prairie ecosystem. But to read about it in the New York Times is, of course, even better.

The article focuses on the work of Rana Creek Habitat Restoration as they partner with Renzo Piano to design a big old meadow for the top of the refurbished California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. (In a recent stop in town, Paul Kephart, founder of Rana Creek, recounted how Piano was initially opposed to the messy meadow about his slick modernish architecture. Uh, hello, Academy of Science? Ecology? Climate Change?)

Kephart was actually in town because he will be helping to work on the new green roofed parking garage at the new Gates Foundation headquarters at 5th Avenue, across from the Seattle Center. If his past work is any indication, the headquarters will be looking amazing in a few years . . . or atleast the parking garage will, and how many places can you say that about?

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

OSS 2100: Travelling the Country, Spreading the Gospel

One of the things that has been so gratifying about the work that everyone has been doing with Open Space Seattle is how interested other communities across the US have been in what we are doing here in Seattle. To that end, Nancy and I have been invited by various groups to speak at a few upcoming conferences, so if you are in Witchita, KS, Amherst, MA or Philadelphia, PA in the next few weeks, you have the opportunity to hear one of us.

Nancy will be speaking in Witchita at the Lowe Auditorium at the WSU Metroplex, onMarch 29. She assumes at 7 pm but that has not been confirmed.

Then she'll be heading over to Amherst, MA to the Fabos Symposium, which is being hosted by UMass-Amherst on March 31st. While the symposium is a day-long event, Nancy will be speaking at 10:45, in Room 162 on the Lincoln Campus Center.

Finally, Brice will be speaking to the National APA conference on April 16th from11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m with Nate Cormier from Jones + Jones. Titled "Urban Green Infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest" the talk will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

About

Open Space Seattle 2100: Designing Seattle's Green Network for the Next Century
University of Washington, the City of Seattle, the Urban Land Institute and other organizations are sponsoring Open Space Seattle: 2100, a design and planning process to formulate a 100-year vision for Seattle's comprehensive open space network. Join us for inspiring lectures, and start forming your team for a 2-day visioning charrette on February 3 and 4, 2006.
Email: open2100@u.washington.edu